EyeTech Digital Systems has launched FDA-registered EyeOn LifeLine, a potentially life-saving eye-tracking communication tablet for hospital ERs and ICUs, so doctors, nurses and caregivers can easily and quickly communicate with their critical COVID-19 patients, who are unable to speak while confined to their hospital beds.
The stand-mounted tablet faces the patient who simply looks at word squares to express pain level or a request, and the tablet voices it through speakers for nurses and doctors.
EyeOn LifeLine is ultra-portable so it can be utilized with multiple patients during this pandemic, to improve patient outcomes.
EyeTech launched the EyeOn self-calibrating augmented and alternative communication (AAC) device earlier this year for people with ALS, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injuries, Rett Syndrome, traumatic brain injuries or stroke as well as those on the autism spectrum. But the entire team jumped into action to modify the software and firmware to create EyeOn LifeLine, so COVID-19 patients can communicate critical needs to their healthcare workers while intubated or using a ventilator or respirator.
“As a long-time eye-gaze user with hand disabilities, I was devastated to see doctors and nurses not being able to communicate with ICU patients under a ventilator,” EyeTech CEO Robert Chappell said. “If we can save one life, it will be a huge contribution. I just wish we had enough units to serve all the ICUs around the country. Chappell concluded, “We are also donating $500 per unit to the American Nurses Foundation to express our heartfelt support to those fighting this pandemic on the frontlines.”